Rare Birds: Memorable women characters in spy thriller fiction, 1888-2000

Abstract

Women characters in spy thrillers may be essential to the action, like Vesper in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, and they can be a pleasure to meet, like E. Phillips Oppenheim’s delightful Miss Edith Brown in Miss Brown of X.Y.O. They also shed light on the changing image and role of women in society. The paper looks at women characters in spy thrillers in general, and at seven women in more depth. They are Lena, in Henry Seton Merriman’s Young Mistley (1888), Miss Brown, in E. Phillips Oppenheim’s Miss Brown of X.Y.O. (1927), Stella and Ninon, in Michael Annesley’s Room 14 (1935), Vesper, in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale (1953), Elizabeth, in Anthony Price’s The Old Vengeful (1982) and Inna, in John Trenhaile’s Nocturne for the General (1985). The conclusion discusses what makes these women different.